Month: June 2018

 
From Frances Langum:

But this story is NOT about douchebag Dinesh.

It’s about Michael Cohen. And sending him a message to “stay strong” and not flip. (I don’t know how that works if Cohen is facing state charges in New York but maybe Trump forgot about that.) And on Stephanie Ruhle’s program, legal analyst Seth Waxman didn’t sugarcoat it:

SETH WAXMAN: Could this be any more transparent? His fixer for ten years is alleged to be involved in passing campaign contributions from others through to his campaign in the context of Stormy Daniels or passing Russian funds through, and then kind of out of nowhere, Mr. Trump pardons D’souza who is accused of doing just that. I can’t see this as anything other than trying to send information–Donald Trump to say “I will take care of you in the future, just stand by me.”

Add “abuse of power” to the impeachable offenses, folks.

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From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:

If Donald Trump was a Marvel character, his name might be something like “DeceptiCon.” That is, the never-before-seen frequency and magnitude of Trump’s lies combine to create a Cloak of Confusion, a black hole-like force from which the truth seemingly cannot escape. Defying the laws of physics and logic, he was after all a Schrödinger’s Candidate, often for and against the same thing at the same time. And now as the Heisenberg Uncertainty President, it is virtually impossible to ever simultaneously know what Trump would believe, say, and do on any issue. Most insidious of all, DeceptiCon has produced learned helplessness in almost all who observe him, especially among members of the media. Slowly but surely, the search for objective truth is abandoned as Trump’s unceasing torrent of frauds, falsehoods, and fictions is gradually accepted as routine, normal, and even entertaining.

This process was essentially complete well before Election Day in November 2016. On August 18, 2016, Trump relaunched his campaign under the guidance of Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. In what was billed as a major address in Charlotte, North Carolina, Republican nominee Trump pledged:

“One thing I can promise you is this: I will always tell you the truth.”

Of course, his meta vow wasn’t true. Not even close.

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From Infidel753:

The bad-hairstyle summit in Singapore has ended with news of a deal — but there’s less here than meets the eye.

The full text of the joint statement is here; an analysis is here. Most of it is diplomatic fluff and vague promises about improving relations in the future; there is language about recovering POW/MIA remains which will be meaningful to those who have POW/MIA relatives. The main issue is addressed in a single sentence:

3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Note that even this is explicitly presented not as something new, but as a reaffirmation of something already declared at the April 27 summit between North and South Korea. The phrase “work toward” is odd. North Korea is a dictatorship.

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